So I first heard about my guest today, Michelle Harper, when I stumbled upon an essay that she had published earlier this year entitled when this war is over, many of us will leave medicine.
It was about the reality of her day to day life and those around her, her colleagues, as an ER doc during the early days of the pandemic.
It was this devastating, powerful, deeply human read, and that led me to her equally beautiful and moving, and at times heartbreaking yet hopeful New York Times bestselling memoir, the beauty in breaking so graduating Harvard and the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University.
For her entire career, Michelle has sought out emergency medicine positions in hospitals that serve under resourced communities, often communities of color.
And she's not just a devout physician and a healer, but also an advocate, an advocate for dignity, for equality, and for change.
And the seeds for this path were planted very early in her life through a blend of family, trauma, and just growing, deep personal conviction that has compelled her to not just take care of those in need, but also champion their humanity along the way.
So excited to share this conversation with you.
I'm Jonathan Fields, and this is a good life project.
You published this piece, I think it was in April, late April, called when this war is over, many of us will leave medicine.
And it's such a compelling, moving, emotional piece of writing, but also reflection.
And it was, what I found stunning was this was your personal experience, it was your personal story, but it was also a devastatingly powerful commentary on, really, this state of medicine in general, this state of our collective value set about patients, healthcare providers, and just humanity in general.
Talk to me more about where this came from.
It's what I've been seeing in medicine over time.
I mean, I'm still, I'm not so senior, but I've been at this as an attending physician for over ten years.
And the focus moving from healthcare and more towards the business of medicine, which is really about profits.
And it's devastating.
And now being through coronavirus at a time when we need healthcare more than ever during a pandemic, this pandemic, I mean, there's so much devastation, death, pain, suffering.
If there's anything optimistic about it, if there's anything purposeful about it, I hope we are learning from it, because it's really laid bare issues that have been there for so long.
The fact that during a time of a pandemic, during a time of unprecedented unemployment, people don't have access to care when they need it most.
The fact that our healthcare workers, whether they're techs, nurses, doctors, are not valued.